Christian Hellmich: Tivoli

Christian Hellmich (b. 1977) creates works characterised by gestural abstraction and the asymmetrical arrangement of planes of colour, which are used to develop a kind of geometric grid pattern that dissects the pictorial space. This avoids any uniform perspective so that spaces penetrate into one another, and various image planes appear simultaneously. The fragments of motifs that Hellmich assembles are taken from his extensive image archive of photographs, magazine cuttings, Internet sources, postcards, and more. His approach is shaped by society's handling of images in today's mediatised age. References to architectural structures and comic-like shapes trigger associations without being clearly categorisable, thus rousing interest in their assumed decryption. Text in English and German. Christian Hellmich (*1977 in Duesseldorf) studied at Folkwangschule in Essen from 1998 to 2004. He was Scholar of Stiftung Kunstfonds, Stiftung Kulturwerk and others. Since 2003 he held institutional and gallery solo and group shows, nationally and internationally. His works are represented in private and institutional collections in Germany and abroad, like the collection of Von-der-Heydt-Museum, Wuppertal, Philarra Collection Duesseldorf or the Margulies Collection in Miami. Christian Hellmich lives and works in Berlin. 78 colour illustrations